Electronic products have become an integral part of our daily lives. This has created a consistent and increasing expectation for new features, higher speed, more data, improved portability, etc. These demands have driven the development of electronic technology to reduce size, improve utility, and increase performance of the integrated circuit devices in an ever-increasing range of products such as smartphones, music players, televisions, and automobiles.
As components decrease in size, connection points must be closer together, and may become too crowded. As connection structures get closer and closer together, there is an increasing risk for cross-connections to cause problems like electrical shorts or unreliable connections.
Thus, a need still remains for a way of making connections more reliable. In view of the consumer demand for thinner and thinner devices yet with more functionality, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.